Hughton salutes Newcastle’s fighting spirit

Steve Griffiths

Newcastle manager Chris Hughton praised his side’s spirit after the Championship leaders salvaged a dramatic 2-2 draw at local rivals Middlesbrough.

Hughton’s team trailed with eight minutes left at the Riverside Stadium but Andy Carroll’s equaliser ensured the Magpies moved nine points clear of third placed Nottingham Forest, who lost 3-2 at Preston.

“What we have always had this season is we are never out of a game,” Hughton said.

Fortune

“That’s one thing we have in this group of lads, a real desire not to give up, and you just hope among all that, you have a bit of fortune in front of goal.”

Peter Lovenkrands had given Newcastle a 16th minute lead when he took Jonas Gutierrez’s pass and slotted home his 13th goal of the season.

But Barry Robson equalised for the hosts in front of a bumper 27,347 crowd with a curling effort that gave Steve Harper no chance. Scott McDonald, Middlesbrough’s Australian striker, put his team in front in the 74th minute when he converted a knock down from Chris Killen.

However, Carroll had the last word as he stabbed in the late leveller from Ryan Taylor’s cross.

Second place

At the Hawthorns, second placed West Brom were made to fight hard for the 3-2 victory over Blackpool that took them five points clear of Forest.

Roberto Di Matteo’s side fell behind in the sixth minute when Charlie Adam drove home David Vaughan’s pass.

But Albion levelled in the 13th minute through Ishmael Miller’s fine solo effort and midfielder Robert Koren put the hosts ahead in the 53rd minute.

Brett Ormerod equalised for Ian Holloway’s visitors in the 72nd minute, but Graham Dorrans won it for Albion 12 minutes from full-time when he stroked home a debatable penalty.

“It doesn’t matter where we get the points from,” Di Matteo said. “But we looked at the fixture list and knew we had seven of the final 12 games at home and we knew the importance of the home games.

“I am very pleased that we have managed to win the first two at home.” Forest manager Billy Davies suffered a painful return to Preston as his promotion chasers were unable to recover from a dismal first half at Deepdale.

Davies remains a hate figure among Preston followers after he controversially quit the Lancashire outfit to take over at Derby in 2006.

Forest fell 3-0 behind by half-time thanks to Ross Wallace’s strike, Callum Davidson’s penalty and Matt James’ brilliant long-range effort.

Dexter Blackstock and Robert Earnshaw cut the gap in the second half but it wasn’t enough to rescue a draw.

Atrocious

“Our warm-up was atrocious and having watched that I was concerned because it was sloppy and slack.” Davies said.

“There was no tempo and we just didn’t start, but there’s no doubt that the home side thoroughly deserved their victory because they competed better than us and won second balls better than us.”

Swansea are fourth after a goalless draw with struggling Sheffield Wednesday at the Liberty Stadium.

Fifth placed Leicester claimed a 1-0 win over play-off rivals Cardiff at the Walkers Stadium thanks to Martyn Waghorns’ 29th minute goal.

Away win

At the other end of the table, rock bottom Peterborough got their first away win of the season as Liam Dickinson’s 51st minute goal sunk Watford 1-0 at Vicarage Road.

Second bottom Plymouth remain deep in trouble after a 1-1 draw at Coventry, while Scunthorpe slipped into the bottom three following a 1-0 defeat at fellow strugglers Ipswich.

Crystal Palace shared a goalless draw with Barnsley at Oakwell, Sheffield United drew 1-1 with QPR at Bramall Lane, Doncaster defeated Derby 2-1 and Reading beat Bristol City 2-0.

LONDON, Sunday AFP